A country’s cuisine is an insight into so much more than just what people fancy for lunch. It’s a glimpse into a culture’s daily routines and rhythms; is lunch a quick sandwich inhaled in front of a computer screen, or a two-hour, two-course affair, leaving time for an afternoon siesta? Sri Lankan meals are never a quick one-pot affair, with various dishes and sides present in each meal. Looking to learn the recipes and techniques that make up Sri Lankan cuisine, we donned our aprons on and took a Sri Lankan cookery course.

On a Lonely Planet recommendation we chose a cookery course in Unawatuna, a little beachside village just 10 minutes away from Galle, the colonial town we had headed to from Colombo. Leading the class was the extremely charismatic Karuna, who has been running the course since 2004.

Having read lots about the course, and Karuna, I knew what to expect – a trip to the market, the chance to make an array of traditional curries, and the experience of Karuna herself. Chatty, smiley and an absolute domestic goddess, within ten minutes of meeting her she had her arm around me and was already bossing orders. I felt like Karuna and I would really get on.

Colourful fresh produce at Galle market

Picking up our ingredients in the market, I saw vegetables I didn’t even know existed. Round baby aubergines? Well I never. Leaving the market, we stopped off to buy some fresh tuna. Never one to be squeamish, the sight of a man driving a machete into this enormous tuna fish’s head had even me looking away.

Tuna beheading

We made an impressive 7 curries in total, each using a similar blend of curry and pandan leaves (pandan is similar to lemongrass) and various spices. Each curry contained coconut milk or cream, which we extracted ourselves from just one coconut. Once split in two, the coconut flesh is then extracted out of the shell and then twice drained through a sieve with water; once to obtain the coconut cream, and a second time to get the milk.

Sister Bidmead on coconut duty

Coconut admin out of the way, we could start preparing our many curries. The tuna curry was our spiciest, with an intimidating two teaspoons of chilli flakes. Karuna ignored my pleas for a milder version and continued to add in a handful of baby green chilis. She told me if I didn’t like spice, I just didn’t eat the chilis. Fair enough…and what Karuna says, goes.

Tuna curry

After just over an hour of cooking, we had managed to rustle up a true feast. We all took away mini notebooks, with the recipes scribbled down and top tips noted. It was fascinating seeing how these traditional dishes are made, and to summarise a bit about each recipe…

– They all have a lot of garlic. Want to cook great curries? Don’t scrimp on the cloves – all of the dishes we made contained at least 6.

– Revelation: you don’t need to soften or cook the onions first. Honestly! We just mixed all the ingredients in a bowl with its liquid (either the coconut milk or cream) and then put it straight in the pan. A time saver or what?

Not one to blow my own trumpet (and of course this plate is due mainly to Karuna’s knowledge in the kitchen rather than any skill of my own), but this meal was one of my favourite of the entire holiday. This huge mix of flavours on one plate meant every mouthful was exciting, with different tastes in each dish, from the sweet pineapple right through to the spicy, meaty tuna fish. It was incredible how every dish was so unique, despite all of them using a similar mix of spices and herbs.

If anybody is eager to know any of the other recipes we made, feel free to drop me an email and I will happily share them with you.

With ‘rice and curry’ as the national dish, Sri Lankan food, at first glance, doesn’t reveal much to the foreign palate. But this is no anglicized chicken korma affair. Think of a jackfruit curry with a surprisingly meaty texture, or a lentil dahl spiced with sweet cinnamon and cooked in coconut cream, piled on top of sweet, yet ever so slightly charred, soft roti bread.

These, along with many other dishes, form a cuisine that is both richly spiced yet soothing and comforting, which at each meal allows itself the chance the present three or four dishes, made to be shared and eaten in company. I was lucky enough to head to Sri Lanka on a two week holiday with my mum and sister.

After arriving in the countries capital of Colombo after a long flight and unsure whether it was lunch, breakfast or dinner, the three Bidmead’s ordered a distinctly odd array of dishes for our first bite to eat. Porridge for my mum, a banana roti for myself and a vegetable kottu for my sister.

Vegetable Kottu

By far the most interesting of all three, kottu is chopped up roti bread (a roti is similar to a flatbread) mixed with either egg, fish, meat or vegetables. It’s similar to egg-fried rice if the rice was replaced with small slices of flat bread, and the whole thing was bursting with spices.

With just a day in Colombo, I made sure we made it down the Galle Park pier for sunset. An expansive stretch of green on the sea, this charming spot fills up on a Sunday evening with families, couples and kite flyers, but more to my interest…a truckload of food vendors too. Selling typical street food, known as short eats, it was the perfect place to gain more insight into Sri Lankan cuisine.

Fresh crabs and fried prawn cakes filled the glass cabinets of the street food carts, as well as richly spiced fruits (think pineapple with chili and mango with salt) sold from huts behind.

Fresh crab and fried prawn and sweet potato pancakes

As we sat down at a barbecue shack with tables and chairs, I admired their fresh seafood, marinated in a wealth of spices, ready for the barbecue. The meaty menu options caught my eye too; my offal enthusiasm seemed to be shared by the Sri Lankans, as waiting to hit the grill were trays of tripe, prepped in herbs, onions, and spices.

A tray full of tripey goodness

After having a rest from a day walking in the fierce sun and heat, we decided for our first dinner we’d opt for a taste of the North. We sadly wouldn’t have time to make it up to the Jaffna, one of Sri Lanka’s biggest Northern towns, but thought as second best, we’d at least be able to give the cuisine a go.

Famous for their curried crab, Yaal Restaurant was a very casual, low-key local diner, where no dish cost over £4. Knowing we had to order crab but otherwise feeling quite overwhelmed by the amount of dishes to choose from, options ranged from savoury curried porridge to devilled kidneys and livers.

Jaffna style crab, cooked in a spicy curry sauce

Fiddly to eat (as all crab is), we wasted no time in cracking, sucking and biting our way into this curried crustacean. A hot and spicy dish, the crab was slightly cooled by the rich coconut milk in which it was cooked, and this sauce had us all slurping away to the very last mouthful. Along with the crab, we ordered a cuttlefish pitthu, with bears some resemblance to egg fried rice, yet instead of rice the grains are actually made out of rice flour, mixed with spices and steamed in a banana leaf.

Two prawn paratha plates, top right is the cuttlefish pitthu and bottom rigtht, Jaffna style crab

The wraps were parata flat breads filled with crispy prawns and served with dahl and a curried coconut sauce and were a great mix of crunchy prawns wrapped in the soft, doughy bread. Northern Sri Lankan food is typically spicier than that of the south, and for a first meal in Sri Lanka, I realised I would have to get my spice tolerance up for the duration of the trip!

From Colombo, it was onto Galle, an old Colonial town down in the South. Keep reading for the next Sri Lankan Travel BidmeadBites!

Prague is famous for its stag-dos and beer that costs less than water, and with return flights for under £50, it was the perfect New Year mini-holiday for me and my three friends. Gloves, scarfs and beer hats at the ready, we set off for a few days of sightseeing, beer drinking and beef eating in the capital of the Czech Republic.

Typical Czech food is meaty, carb-heavy and lacking in fresh vegetables. Vegetarians, fear not, because there’s plenty of apple strudel, and who needs their veg fresh when it comes perfectly pickled instead? Here is a rundown of some culinary highlights from the trip.

Oatmeal pancakes

Our first day in the city saw us breakfasting at Kare cafe – half cafe, half trendy interior shop. Given it was the day following Shrove Tuesday, I nodded to Pancake Day with these oatmeal pancakes served with vanilla cream. The chopped fruit served on top was mixed with fresh mint which worked well in cutting the rich vanilla-specked custard.

There was also the lighter option of yogurt, granola and compote – all homemade and a fantastic combination, prettily arranged in an appropriately fashionable mason jar.

Homemade yogurt, granola and compote

After working up an appetite on our walk up to the top of the funicular railway, we lunched at a friend’s recommendation, the popular spot Lokal. Serving typically Czech food, brain, pickled herring and at least five types of sausage featured on the menu.

Lunching at Lokal

Changing the phrase ‘when in Rome’ to fit the Czech capital and you end up with something like ‘when in Prague, eat all the goulash and drink an awful lot of beer’. At Lokal, we ordered some goulash and bread dumplings, along with a mixed sausage platter to share.

The vast mound of bread dumplings and my poor photography skills mean the goulash is lost, but alongside these carby bread pillows was a smooth beef shin stew – the perfect plate for a cold day and a large appetite. The trio of sausages came accompanied with some mild mustard and horseradish cream.

When unsure of what to order for dessert, a tried and tested approach is just to get it all. The top two plates here are chocolate and caramel eclairs. The chocolate eclair was just far too rich, replacing any custard for an overly dark chocolate ganache, but fortunately the caramel variant was a dream. The caramel was not just mixed in with the icing but also the whipped cream sandwiching the two eclairs together.

Something sweet at Lokal

What looks unfortunately similar to a nut-crusted turd is actually a hazelnut biscuit topped with chocolate ganache, covered in dark chocolate. Despite its uncanny physically similarities to poo, it tasted fantastic and was essentially just a large dark Ferrero rocher chocolate.

Prague is famous for having beer that’s cheaper than water, and as someone who loves a pint but not the £5 London price tag, this was music to my ears. After having tried, and failed to see the Jewish Museum (because it obviously closes early on a Friday for sabbath), we thought we’d do another museum instead.

Working their way in – The Beer Museum’s tasting selection

The Prague Beer Museum is not a museum at all, although its title may allow you to believe you’re involving yourself in Prague’s rich cultural history while you sink several pints from their 30-strong collection of beers and ales. An overwhelming amount of choice and subsequent confusion as to what to actually order is all remedied in the option of the ‘taster platter’, where you can sample up to 10 different beers.

Another great Prague watering hole is the slightly more upmarket Bugsys Bar, a swanky cocktail bar serving up expertly mixed drinks to Prague’s well-to-do. Checking out the fancy interior and dolled-up customers, upon arrival we started to worry drinks would cost more than our return flights. Currencies converted, it seemed most cocktails were around the £5 mark, which for the quality of the drinks was a real bargain. I tried a classic Negroni, followed by a rum-based long drink and then finished with a sweet and fruity iced-tea of some sort. Clearly, three drinks in and my attention to detail waned slightly.

Cocktail drinking at Bugsy’s

Not letting any cocktail induced hangovers hold us back, it was out bright and early to continue seeing Prague’s sights. Walking around the centre of town and a smell of sweet pastries filled the air. Trdelník, or chimney cake if you’d like a name you can actually pronounce, is a traditional Slovak cake which is extremely popular in the Czech capital. Soft, sweet dough is rolled around a stick, grilled and then topped with sugar and filled with chocolate or fresh strawberries.

The tastiest chimneys around

For more sweet cakes and treats, Bake Shop is a cafe based in the old Jewish Quarter. Serving some of the best coffee in town, this cafe is extremely popular with tourists as it features in every guide book – with good reason too. Beautiful looking cakes sit alongside savoury tarts, sandwiches and a whole host of small biscuits and bakes. We popped in on more than one occasion to sample some of the goods on offer, with these pretty Valentine’s biscuits being a favourite.

Not just tasty, but beautiful treats at Bake Shop

Before we knew it, our brief holiday was drawing to a close. To bid farewell to the city we had enjoyed so much and had kept us so entertained (not to mention well-fed), we had our final meal at Pivovarský dům. A local place serving the best of traditional Czech food, it was beef, bread dumplings and goulash galore. I eyed up the interestingly named ‘Knights Platter’. With duck, beef and pork all on the same plate, served alongside yet more bread dumpling, and of course some pickled cabbage, this seemed like an awful lot of food for just one person.

The Knight’s Platter

Despite my impressive appetite, I was relieved to learn this was a two-person platter. I was even more pleased when I realised I actually had a friend who wanted to share it with me. We got stuck in and did a sterling job of finishing it off. The pork ball dumplings were particularly good although I prefer not to spend too much time thinking about what combination of animal parts they actually contained. Post Knight’s Platter and there was even some room left for dessert.

A classic Apple Strudel cake is one of my favourite desserts, and eating it in this traditional Czech diner felt as authentic as it gets. The soft, buttery and flaky pastry encased the delicately spiced apples and raisins perfectly, and despite having consumed three animals in the main course, this went down a treat.

All to soon and we were on our Ryanair flight back to blighty. Prague was a perfect 4-day mini break, and I’m now incredibly keen to check out more central and eastern European cities. I may go steady on the pickles beforehand though.

As the smell of meat grilling, multiple chickens slowly cooking on a spit roast and sweet, freshly baked cheesy bread wafts past me, I know I’m back in Latin America. This time, I’ve ditched my Spanish and taken to speaking Portuguese (extremely, extremely poorly) in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

1 of about 100 açaí bowls I consumed while in Rio

On street corners and along the beach front people quench their thirst with ice cold coconuts, slurping its water of the shell. Juice bars churn out sweet, creamy avocado juices and serve up salty and deep fried salgados. While I enjoyed the abundance of beige fried food and sugary avocado, my favourite Brazilian bite was a purple bowl of beauty, otherwise known as açaí.

A berry native to Central and South America, açaí has been touted as a ‘superfood’, supposedly even richer in antioxidants than cranberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, or blueberries. Served frozen and blended, either on its own or mixed in with other fruits like banana or strawberry to make a thick smoothie, açaí is served in a copa (cup) or na tigela (in a bowl, topped with granola and chopped banana).

Since the beachfront of Copacabana has been swapped for the streets of Camden, I’m now looking to recreate this Brazilian delight in my own kitchen. You won’t find any açaí down your local Asda, so I’ve opted for a mix of raspberries and blueberries instead. You could, of course, top this with shop bought granola, but try this recipe for a decidedly unhealthier version to balance out all the pesky vitamins inside this superfood smoothie bowl.

Replacing the Brazilian berries for British ones obviously gives this bowl a different taste to those I ate in Brasil, but it makes for a brilliant breakfast all the same. There’s a fair bit of oil in the granola, but it’s the fat and sugar that give it that crunch. My use of coconut oil here is a nod to those cocos sipped beachside and gives a rich and warm flavour to the granola.

Combine warm syrup with the oats and cinnamon, covering oats in liquid.

Divide onto two baking trays lined with baking paper, and put into oven for 25-30 minutes. You want the oats golden but not overly so, and should poke oats around every 5-10 minutes, as for this granola clusters are not what we’re after.

Remove from oven, leave to cool and add in raisins.

Raspberry and blueberry smoothie bowl

(Makes one large bowl)

Ingredients

1 banana, chopped up and frozen

50g frozen raspberries

80g frozen blueberries

200ml milk

2 tbsp runny honey

Method

Place ingredients in blender. Blend. Simple!

To assemble, scoop smoothie into bowl, sprinkle on a generous amount of granola and decorate with finely chopped banana slices.

Despite the appalling British weather (does this even classify as summer?), my return from Colombia has been a happy one. Although I was sad to leave the country I came to love and call home, being back in my true home London has reminded me of all the great things this city has to offer. But hardly back three weeks and I was lucky enough to travel away again, to the slightly less exotic, but no less exciting German capital of Berlin.

I had never been to Berlin before and had genuinely grown almost tired of hearing everyone else and their aunt rave about how wonderful it was. So my mum and I booked a six-day trip to explore the city and see what all the hype was about.

It seems everyone had good reason to praise Berlin – what an incredible city! Kicking off our holiday in style, it was time for some cocktails. We headed to the classic old-fashioned bar at the Kempinski hotel, in the district of Charlottenburg to quench our thirst. The bar was impressively stocked – and if this wasn’t enough, there was an equally impressive drinks trolley with just about every liquor under the sun.

I’ve definitely taken after my mum in a fair few traits, and my taste in alcohol is one of them. Despite being swayed by the extensive cocktail menu, sometimes you just can’t beat a classic. We both went for Negronis. A mildly potent mix, this cocktail is made up of equal quantities of gin, red vermouth and Campari. Who needs non-alcoholic mixers in their cocktails anyway? A Negroni is a classic apéritif, or pre-dinner drink, which is unsurprising – too many of these on an empty stomach would not end well.

So onto dinner it was as we headed into the trendy area of Kreuzberg, which seemed to be the hipster hangout of the city – a German Shoreditch if you will. There was such a wealth of great looking places to eat and drink, it was hard to know where to head! After yet another cocktail at a very cool bar, we eventually headed into Knofi.

A mix of Turkish, Persian and Moroccan cuisine, this is a great little spot where you choose from a salad bar and are served by staff, who then weigh your plate.

Mainly vegetarian, Knofi offered up more dips than I knew could even exist, along with the popular German cheese quark in many exciting flavors. Quark is somewhat similar to the Arabic labneh, strained yogurt which has a tangy, sour taste. Among the other options were many grain salads, with quinoa, couscous, bulgar wheat…all the grains you could think of.

We went for a large plate to share, and while not entirely sure what we were choosing (turns out all those years of Spanish did not help me with my German – funny that), everything on our plate was fantastic. From the top-notch classic hummus to the sweet-potato garlic dip next to it, one serving almost wasn’t enough! Other tasty treats on our plate included the lentil balls as seen in the middle and the cracking coriander and grain salad. All this, with two glasses of wine and bottles of water came to a grand total of €14! A bargain if you ask me.

Always eager to sample local cuisine, it was only natural that I try the famous German ‘delicacy’, the Currywurst. The slightly odd pairing of a German Bratwurst sausage combined with curry ketchup and then doused with a light sprinkling of curry powder on top, the Currywurst is the definitive dish in German street food. Invented by a woman called Herta Heuwer in 1949, this sausage and curry combo has been much loved since its birth. Whether I loved it could be questioned, but I certainly didn’t hate it. Although…trying it just once was plenty, as there was so much more food to be eaten!

Stay posted for the next installments of my Berlin trip. An absolutely sensational food market as well as what categorically classifies as ‘foodie heaven’ at Berlin’s swankiest department store, BidmeadBites certainly got its fill while in Berlin!

Sometimes the best things are last minute, like my impromptu and completely spontaneous decision to head back to my beloved Buenos Aires on a stop home from Colombia. I spent a year living in the Argentine capital while studying Spanish at Leeds, and since my departure two years ago I have always been keen to come back.

Somewhere in the north of Argentina, two years ago

Despite having always liked food, I have Argentina to thank for really turning a like into a love. While opinions on Argentine food are mixed – “their pizza sucks!“, “what the fuck is a milanesa?” and “do they have to put dulce de leche in eveeeerything?!”, food in this country plays a big part in its history and culture.The Argentine asado (barbecue) is much more than just a meal. The slow cooking meat, friends gathered together sipping on red wine and nibbling on chorizo sandwiches, awaiting the various cuts of beef, pork and whatever other goodness they have grilling on the parilla…the whole experience is enough to make a vegetarian eat meat just to be a part of this culturally important (and above all delicious), meaty affair.

‘I’ll just have, everything please’. Dinner (to share) at La Hormiga

For my first night back in the city what better dinner option than a whole asado in one plate? We headed toLa Hormiga in Palermo, which is part of a group of restaurants in the city that offer great food at great prices – other recommended restaurants in this group are Las Cabras (mainly meat) and Cumana (regional cuisine). This mixed parilla dish from La Hormiga is a great way to get the asado experience while dining out in a restaurant. Featuring a juicy bife de chorizo, grilled veggies, squash mash and some tasty grilled provoleta (typical Argentine cheese), this is a dish that has it all. One to share, it was the perfect welcome back into Buenos Aires.

Looking to relive all my favorite foodie moments in the city, the next night I returned to El Nono Amigo, a tiny deli on the corner of where I used to live. El Nono serves some seriously good picadas (mixed platters with cured meat and cheese), but this place became a favourite for me due to its empanadas, different from any others I had tried in the city.

Just check out the selection! Of course the Argentine classics of carne and jamon y queso will inevitably feature, but look to the far more interesting aubergine and artichoke options and you’ll see why I am such a fan. Cooked al horno, I prefer these beige bundles of goodness far more than the fried Colombian equivalent. I’m sorry Colombia…I still love you, I promise.

What better way to wash down these tasty empanadas than with a bottle of Malbec? Back at one of my favourite places, with my artichoke empanadas and bottle of red, I felt truly back in the bosom of my old home.

By no means the end of my foodie adventures back in Arg, be prepared for many a steak and new blog post to come! Peruvian lunches with hearty (literally) dishes abound, smoked and fried chicken wings in a meat feast that touch my soul and some exciting new steak house discoveries feature in my food-filled and fun packed ten day trip back to BA. So keep reading and stay tuned, as this is just the beginning!

Buenos Aires is a city unlike any other. Despite being a Latin American capital, it has a distinctly European vibedue to its rich history of immigrants arriving at its ports. Not just a place attractive to Europeans, the city is also home to a huge mix of Latinos from all across the continent. Such a diverse mix of cultures means that Buenos Aires is a great place to eat. Hurray!

The Buenos Aires barrio of Once (pronounced on-say) is a brilliant place to come and sample cuisines from other Latin American countries, especially Peru. One of my old favorites in the area is the Peruvian eatery, La Rica Vicky. A popular lunch spot, the ‘menu especial‘ includes a soup and 10 plates to choose from, ranging from chicken and rice to the famous lomo saltado (beef strips cooked in a Chinese style sauce with chips) or aji a la gallina (chicken in a creamy yellow sauce made with small yellow peppers).

Being back in Buenos Aires meant catching up with friends, like Ari. We had met in Colombia and when she shared my fried ear and tongue picada after a night out, I knew she was a girl after my own heart. Sadly after three years of living and working in BA she was off back to the states. Her departure meant that cocktails at lunchtime were perfectly acceptable – being at the Peruvian joint La Rica Vicky, the typical tipple of pisco sour (pisco served with lime juice and frothed egg white) was the natural choice. Cheers to Ari and the next chapter in her life (and for making daytime cocktail sipping acceptable!).

Despite offering such a cracking lunch menu, on this particular trip to La Rica Vicky my offal-loving eye was drawn elsewhere. Anticuchos, how I love thee. Basically just a whole load of offal, these caught my eye as I was familiar with chunchuli (intestine), down with mollejitas (sweetbreads) but what an earth was rachi? Turns out it its beef heart marinated and cooked on a skewer, and would also would be my lunch for the day.

My heart was marinated to perfection. I don’t know if it’s due to the type of meat heart is (being an organ an all), but these skewers had a really great flavor, a mix of garlic, coriander, and cumin. Since researching a bit more about the role offal plays in Peruvian cuisine, I found a great recipe for these skewers here. To those of you daring enough to open your heart the eating a bit of heart, why not try cooking it at home?

It’s a well-known fact that in Buenos Aires you can get some of the best meat money can buy. But it tends to be cooked in the same way every time – on a grill, without any marinating or pre-curing. So I was very excited to discover that since I had last been in BA, a new Texan BBQ joint had opened to absolutely roaring success.

El Tejano is bringing Texan cuisine to Buenos Aires and the people are welcoming it with open arms. The owner Larry has been smoking and grilling his way around Buenos Aires for the past few years, throwing puerta cerrada style dinners – offering set menus in different locations week to week for a small amount of diners. However for the past two years he has been fixed in a small Palermo spot, offering lunches and booked out dinners to the hungry, barbecue lusting masses. (Thanks to theEl Tejano Instagramfor the pic).

I was lunching with my friend Lau and we happily let Larry do the ordering for us. Between two we ended up with an impressive three dishes…to sample a bit of everything, you know. Below is the brisket bagel, served with an incredible creamy sauce and cooked peppers, accompanied by some really, realllly good fries. What makes the fries so great? Apparently it’s the addition of chili salt and using oil which is constantly changed and kept fresh. Only the freshest fry for us ladies!

Moving on, we also sampled the famous El Tejano ribs. How very cliché to describe the meat of a tasty rib as ‘falling off the bone’, but what the hell, this meat really did fall off the bone! Smoked, marinated and grilled, they were some of the best ribs I have ever tasted.

Just when we thought we couldn’t squeeze in any more, along came the wings. These for me were the highlight, as being in Buenos Aires for a few days already I’d had my fair share of meat. But chicken wings, smoked and then fried, smothered in BBQ sauce? Well, there’s a thing I hadn’t eaten in my entire life! As Larry told us, he’s the only person in BA smoking and frying his wings, and actually the only guy in Texas to do so too. So if you want to try these authentic Texan smoked wings (which you really, really do), get your arse to Argentina.

This is not the end of my BA eats. Barely the beginning! What would any Buenos Aires food blogging be without at least a couple of steak houses thrown in? And check back for the next post, in which I reveal the location of the world’s best sandwich ever (expertly rated by yours truly).

The last part of my travels sees me return to what could potentially be my favorite place in Colombia…Cali. I first visited with my sister in January, returned in May and managed to squeeze in one last visit before I head back to the UK. Why do I love it so much? Well, Cali is the country’s (if not world’s) capital of salsa, the weather is hot, the people are friendly and it’s just a lot of bloody fun. They also eat a hell of a lot of meat. What more could an offal-loving salsa enthusiast possibly want?

A very meaty fritanga

To begin this meat filled post, I present the fritanga caleña. Not a dish for anyone watching their waistlines, this is some seriously heavy stuff. Eaten at the famous J&J in the iconic and picturesque old barrio of San Antonio, a fritanga is a mix of fried meat and fritos (pasty type goodies). J&J know how to do it right, with this epic basket containing fried beef, morcilla (black sausage), pork rind, lung, plantain, new potatoes, empanadas, marranitas (fried plantain balls with pork) and aborrajados (fried plantain balls with cheese). This famous spot features a bar dedicated to condiments and offers guacamole, three different types of tomato salsa, peanut sauce, tartare, sour cream and salsa verde. How will I ever be satisfied with just ketchup again?

It’s highly likely I am so drawn to Cali due to it’s affinity for offal, a sentiment I very much share. On a friends recommendation I headed to the Galeria de Alameda, the place to go for a delicious lunch at an incredible price. I had been told I couldn’t leave Cali without trying the typical (and extremely potent) caldo de pajarilla. This essentially translates as ‘offal soup’ and is a stew featuring kidney, heart, liver and…spleen. This soup is pretty robust and makes for a hearty and heavy midday meal. Whether I actually liked it is perhaps up for debate. Even for an offal lover such as myself, I felt the mix of quite so much offal in one dish created ‘a too many organs spoil the broth’ situation. Oh, that old chestnut!

But if you thought spleen soup sounded a bit much, perhaps you’d be interested to know about the ‘caldo peligroso‘ as advertised in the sign above. This translates as ‘dangerous broth’, but for a keen traveler and adventurous foodie such as myself, I couldn’t fathom what the danger might be. Chatting to the chef, turns out that this ‘dangerous soup’ contains bull penis, testicles, heart and feet. She also alluded to it being some sort of aphrodisiac. While I tried to imagine how eating genitals might get your own private bits somewhat excited, I personally failed to make the link.

This rather impressive looking stuffed pigs head is known as lechona, a whole pig stuffed with rice, vegetables and spices, slow cooked in a brick oven. This is a dish I’ve wanted to try for a while and in all places I found it while passing through a shopping centre! Just another reason to love Cali – pop into a shopping centre in search of a loo and find a whole stuffed pig instead. This dish was a perfect combination of textures and flavors, as you get crispy pork skin along with the soft, richly flavored rice dotted with shreds of slow cooked pork. My lechona lunch certainly beat any other shopping centre food court meal I’d eaten before!

But what’s this? Something that isn’t meat? Sometimes Cali’s hot, sticky summer days call for something this isn’t a fried dead animal and that is when the very famous cholado fits the bill perfectly. There are various versions and recipes for this typical caleño sweet treat, but, in essence, it features shaved ice, fruit syrup, fresh fruit and a wafer. From there, the sky (or plastic cup’s capacity) is the limit. Popular additions include ice cream, chocolate shavings, sweets, dried coconut – your options are endless.
Leaving Cali for the third time, I was more enamored with the city than ever before (although perhaps feeling ready to eat some vegetables). However, this is something that can wait until my return to the UK, as in a last minute decision I booked myself a flight to my old home of Buenos Aires! Bring on plenty of steak and red wine, along with all the other cuisines Argentina’s capital has to offer.

Despite travelling extensively throughout Colombia, there are a few spots that always pull me back. Cartagena, just an hour and a half away from Barranquilla, is certainly one of the places. A top tourist destination, its old city is a UNESCO world heritage site and its nearby islands are home to some of the countries most pristine beaches. A friend recently visited from Buenos Aires and when I asked what he wanted to do, the response was clear. “Beach, beach and lots of sun”. Coming to visit me on the Caribbean coast, he was in luck! We headed to Cartagena for a few days to soak up some rays and naturally, food held an important part in the holiday.

Isla grande

We began our trip by setting off for a nights stay on a group of islands known as the Islas del Rosario, about 45 minutes away from Cartagena by boat. Made up of various small islands, we stayed on Isla Grande and were treated to two days of gorgeous sun and completely unspoiled beaches.

Loster lunching on Isla Grande

The hotel we were staying at had delicious food, however it was rather on the fancy side. We decided to venture away from the hotel and explore the island, home to around 800 permanent residents. We got chatting to a local fisherman who showed us some very impressive freshly caught lobsters, which soon became our lunch! They came cooked al ajillo (in a garlic sauce) and grilled, served with patacones (fried plantain slices). The lobster was flavorsome beyond belief – completely fresh and cooked to perfection.

(Property of the Travel Chanel)

Like many other food-lovers, I hold the chef Anthony Bourdain is extremely high esteem. The author of the Kitchen Confidential, a fascinating insight into the world of restaurants and well worth a read for any foodies, he is also the star of his own show No Reservations, where he travels the world trying typical (and sometimes not so typical) foods in many different countries. The clip above is a section from the No Reservations Colombia episode, and if you skip to 4 minutes in you can see Bourdain at Cartagena’s very own Bazurto Market.

Be warned – Bazurto is no trendy pop-up style food market. It’s a chaotic, dirty, loud and rather smelly place, but if you want to see the real Cartagena, this is where to come. I previously visited with my sister and enjoyed it so much I decided to head back with my friend. Although he seemed slightly overwhelmed by it all (seeing a chicken being boiled while a van full of soldiers with machine guns rocked up was perhaps slightly unsettling), we headed off in search of the famous Cecilia’s, as featured in Bourdain’s No Reservations episode.

When I had visited previously, Cecilia’s famous turtle wasn’t an option, but returning I was spoiled for choice – fried, stewed or grilled, turtle seemed to be the top meal of the day. In his No Reservations episode, Bourdain himself states that turtle is endangered, but that its consumption has been part of the indigenous culture for hundreds of years. Upon reflection, although this was completely delicious, with a dark, rich flesh and a perfectly seasoned coconut vegetable sauce, eating an endangered species should never be condoned. Even if locals around me were choosing it, as a foreigner I shouldn’t be encouraging this practice. As a unique experience, it was definitely interesting to try this local dish, even if I will not be doing so again (I promise!).

Relaxing on Playa Blanca, Baru island

After the sights and smells of Bazurto market, it was back to the beach for another day of relaxation before we headed across the coast to Santa Marta, another one of my regular haunts. It’s a tough job all this travelling and gastronomical exploration, but I guess someone has to do it. Stay tuned for another travel post which sees me return to perhaps my favorite spot in all of Colombia, its salsa capital Cali.

Unbelievably, nearly a year has gone by since I arrived in Colombia to work as an English Language assistant. In a bid to see as much of this wonderful country as I can before I head back to blighty, I headed off travelling again, starting in the capital of Colombia’s Amazon, Leticia. An impressive 800km away from the nearest highway, Leticia is unlike any other part of the country I have visited so far and its borders with both Peru and Brasil make for a real melting pot of cultures. Coming in on the plane from Bogota, all that can be seen for hundreds of miles is thick, dense jungle forest.

Welcome to the jungle!

Travelling alone, I reached the hostel I had reserved and got chatting with two girls in my dorm, both from the UK. It was around lunchtime and our tummies were rumbling, so we headed off in search of some grub. Leticia holds many exciting culinary options, but perhaps the most exciting is the fact you can nip into Peru for some fresh ceviche, or head on over to Brasil for their typical brasilero barbecue. Feeling like something fresh, we jumped in a boat over to Peru, heading for what is known to be the best ceviche in town.

Why not arrive to all your lunches via boat?

Pulling up to Brisas del Amazonas, the Peruvian music, signs welcoming us to Peru, along with piles of fresh ceviche made it clear we had reached the right place.

We ordered the mixed ceviche to share, and it was incredible.

It came with mussels, prawns, langostines, fresh crab, white fish (which I must confess I do not know the name of), yucca, sweet potato and delicious salty toasted corn. This between three was perfect, and cost a grand total of eight pounds. Luxury meal, budget price = happy lunch out in Peru.

Always one to try a local delicacy no matter how weird it may be, Leticia presented me with a first – crunchy, salty, insects. Known as mojojoy, these little bugs were actually pretty tasty. Filled with cheese and served alongside farinha (tasty ground up dried yucca with a nutty flavor), these went down a treat.

Cheesey and buggy

During my stay in the Amazons, I opted for a two-day jungle tour. Alongside 9 other travelers I trekked into the jungle, staying a night in a maloca (the home of an indigenous tribe) and one night under a cambuche (a makeshift shelther) in the middle of the jungle. A physically demanding couple of days, it was well worth the torrential rain, tropical heat and hours of walking – if not just for the food alone! This was no mediocre campside comida – we had some fine meals, featuring whole roasted chickens and enormous fish dinners.

A small feast, mid jungle

I did not imagine the food to be nearly as good as it was and we were all delighted! The meal above features two typical fishes found in the Amazon – the larger two are gamitana, which had a meatier flesh akin to tuna, while the slimmer fish is tucanaré, which was more similar to cod. This all came served with boiled potatoes, rice, salad and a typical cassava pancake with an almost rubber-like texture. While the pancake itself was quite bland, eaten with the fish and salad it was a perfect accompaniment.

Back from the jungle it was nearly time to leave lovely Leticia, but not before I hopped on over to Brasil. Leticica borders Tabatinga, which is part of Brasil. As a town itself Tabitinga hasn’t got very much to offer, other than very cheap cachaça and the well-known restaurant Tres Fronteras, which as the name suggests, offers food from each bordering country.

No veggie option for us

I was fortunately in the company of some very like minded carnivores and we went for the mixed parillada (meat grill). Supposedly feeding two people, this came with chorizo, tripe, chicken breast and thigh, flank steak, tongue and probably about a million other meats I’ve forgotten to mention. As a side, you get a whole plate of arroz chaufa (Chinese style rice) and boiled potatoes. I sincerely want to meet the couple that defeat this alone…between three we still couldn’t finish it!

Jungle times!

As the meat coma wore off it was time to head out of the jungle and back on the road. Stay tuned for some more travel BidmeadBites, involving some crab in Cartagena and some ‘dangerous stew’ in Cali…